Training topics: Email and SMS automation

Using Glide's automated emails and SMS to keep clients informed and get what you need from them, without sending every message by hand.

This is part of our suggested training topics: an outline of what to cover when training your staff on Glide. Topics are grouped by role, so you can run separate sessions or pick the parts that suit each person.

Who each part is for

All staff: day-to-day work such as progressing jobs, recording time and communicating with clients.
Managers: oversight of the team's work, reporting, billing and resourcing.
Practice administrators: setup and configuration tasks that matter but don't come up often.

All staff

Which emails and SMS Glide sends to clients automatically, and when
Knowing which stage moves send a message to the client, so you know what the client receives when you progress a job
Finding messages in the client's communication history
Sending one-off emails and SMS from templates, with client details filled in automatically
Message states: delivered, bounced, queued and failed, and what to do when a message doesn't arrive
Why a message may be waiting, for example if it's queued until working hours or missing client data such as an email address or mobile number

Managers

Spotting opportunities to automate, such as records requests, deadline reminders, progress updates and requests for approval or signature
Reminder sequences timed around the job date, stage actual date and stage target dates, sent only while a job is still at the relevant stage
Choosing email or SMS for each message, and when to use both
Using the Messaging Centre to review what has been sent, delivered, bounced or queued
Keeping client contact details accurate so automated messages reach the right person

Practice administrators

Creating and maintaining email and SMS templates, including merge fields for client, recipient and job details
Setting up automated alerts: which template is sent, when it sends relative to deadlines or stages, who receives it and which jobs it applies to
Adding "send from template" actions to stage moves in the workflow editor
Default from name, from address and signature, and advanced sending rules by template or office
Sending messages during working hours only, and setting a BCC address for all emails
Important DNS record entries and other server options
SMS settings and checking your SMS balance
Testing new automations on a test client before switching them on for everyone